YouTube-iversity

YouTube大学

Arizona State University, YouTube and the video channel Crash Course announced a partnership this week that offers online, transferable, credit-bearing courses that begin on YouTube. The trio is championing the initiative as one that provides open, low-cost, flexible access to higher education. Students can sign up now for courses that begin in early March.

亚利桑那州立大学、YouTube和视频频道“速成班”本周宣布建立合作伙伴关系，提供从YouTube开始的在线课程、可转让课程和有学分的课程。这三人支持这项倡议，认为它提供了开放、低成本且灵活的高等教育机会。学生们现在就可以报名参加三月初开始的课程。

“We’re meeting learners where they are,” said Maria Anguiano, executive vice president of the Learning Enterprise at ASU. “Ultimately, they are on YouTube, and we’re excited to democratize the access to information and opportunity.” The new courses are a significant expansion of the current Study Hall platform, which is a collaboration between the three organizations and has nearly 42,000 subscribers.

亚利桑那州立大学学习企业的执行副总裁玛丽亚·安吉亚诺说：“我们在学习者所在地与他们见面。”“最终，他们出现在YouTube上，我们很高兴可以使获得信息和机会的途径民主化。”新课程是对现有Study Hall平台的重大扩展，该平台是三个组织之间的合作，拥有近42000名订户。

A higher education cocktail that mixes a university known for innovation, an experienced provider of compelling educational multimedia content and a behemoth online video-sharing website holds promise. But bridging the divide between fun, free educational videos on YouTube and the assessment and learning verification needs of online college will be a nontrivial challenge for the partnership. As experts eye ASU’s latest initiative, they are watching with cautious optimism to see if the university has learned from some of its past efforts to counteract the intractable problem of engaging and keeping learners on the margins in online education, including high school graduates who decided not to attend college or those who dropped out of a two- or four-year college program. It also appears to be a twist on the strategy of free or low-cost content (like that on massive open online course platforms) as marketing channels or tasting menus for would-be for-credit students.

一个以创新著称的大学，一个有经验的引人注目的教育多媒体内容提供商和一个庞大的在线视频共享网站混合在一起的高等教育鸡尾酒有希望。但是，弥合YouTube上有趣、免费的教育视频与在线大学的评估和学习验证需求之间的鸿沟，将是这一伙伴关系面临的一个不容忽视的挑战。在专家们关注亚利桑那州立大学的最新举措之际，他们正以谨慎乐观的态度观察该大学是否从过去的一些努力中吸取了教训，从而应对让学习者参与在线教育并将其置于边缘的棘手问题，这些学习者包括决定不上大学的高中毕业生或从两年或四年大学课程中辍学的人。这似乎也是一种扭曲，对免费或低成本内容（如大规模开放在线课程平台上的内容）作为营销渠道或潜在学分学生品尝菜单的策略的一种扭曲。

To be sure, a university could do worse than establishing a presence on the world’s second-most-visited website (Google ranks first). YouTube’s massive audience appears ravenous for content, including of the educational variety. Users watch more than one billion hours of video per day on the site. Among U.S. adults, approximately four out of five (81 percent) spend time on YouTube. But Americans comprise only a fraction of the audience, as more than 80 percent of YouTubers hail from outside the United States.

可以肯定的是，一所大学可能比在世界第二大访问量网站（谷歌排名第一）上维护自己的用户群更难。YouTube庞大的用户群似乎对内容如饥似渴，包括教育类内容。用户每天在网站上观看超过10亿小时的视频。在美国成年人中，大约五分之四（81%）的人会花时间在YouTube上。但美国人仅仅占观众的一小部分，因为超过80%的YouTube用户来自美国以外。

Crash Course, an educational YouTube channel with more than 14 million subscribers, once prompted Wired magazine to ask, “Why isn’t school this cool?” The channel was started by early YouTube vloggers—or “vlogbrothers,” since they are brothers—John and Hank Green, who “raise nerdy to the power of awesome” on a separate channel for their 3.5 million subscribers.

拥有超过1400万订阅者的YouTube教育频道速成班（Crash Course）曾促使《连线》杂志问道：“为什么学校不这么酷？”这个频道是由早期的YouTube视频博客所创建，或者说是“视频博客兄弟”，因为他们是兄弟——约翰和汉克·格林，他们在一个单独的频道上为他们的350万用户“把书呆子培养成了令人敬畏的力量”。

“It’s not just that YouTube has a lot of eyeballs,” said Richard Garrett, chief research officer at Eduventures, a research and advisory firm. “It’s that plus Crash Course is bringing an aesthetic-design approach and pedagogic creativity that perhaps ASU by itself didn’t feel that it has.”

“这不仅仅是因为很多人正在关注YouTube，”主营研究和咨询公司Eduventures的首席研究官理查德·加勒特（Richard Garrett）表示，“正是这一点，加上速成班带来了美学设计方法和教学创造力，也许ASU本身并不觉得它有。”

Here’s how the new offering works: a student begins by watching free course content on the Study Hall YouTube channel. The fast-paced videos are designed to capture and hold viewers’ attention. The U.S. History to 1865 course, for example, is taught by Danielle Bainbridge, an assistant professor of theater at Northwestern University and “history nerd” host of PBS Origins. Within the first minute of the course’s preview, Bainbridge promises to share her excitement for the stories and lessons from history “in a way that hopefully won’t put you to sleep.”

以下是新产品的工作原理：学生从观看StudyHallYouTube频道上的免费课程内容开始。快节奏的视频旨在捕捉和保持观众的注意力。例如，美国历史到1865年的课程是由西北大学戏剧系助理教授、PBS起源节目主持人丹尼尔·班布里奇教授的。在课程预览的第一分钟，班布里奇承诺分享她感兴趣的历史故事和教训，“我希望不会让你睡着。”

Once she throws down that gauntlet, viewers are treated to ever-changing photos, sketches and video clips, over which word and text boxes zoom in and out to reinforce the friendly, energetic voice of the narrator. (Indeed, a viewer would be hard-pressed to fall asleep.) Current courses in Study Hall’s “college foundations” offerings include English composition, college math, U.S. history and human communication. (The university expects to expand to offer 12 courses by January 2025.)

一旦她放下了这场挑战，观众就会看到不断变化的照片、草图和视频剪辑，文字和文本框放大缩小，以加强叙述者友好、充满活力的声音。（事实上，观众会很难入睡。）目前，Study Hall的“大学基础”课程包括英语作文、大学数学、美国历史和人际交往。(该大学预计到2025年1月将开设12门课程。）

Students who are interested in formal coursework beyond watching the videos may pay a $25 fee to enroll in an ASU online course that includes interacting with other students and instructors. Upon completion of the seven-week course, the student receives a grade. At that point, the student can decide whether they would like to pay $400 to record the grade and receive ASU credit. The university does not limit the number of times a student may attempt a course, and the student only pays the $400 fee when they are satisfied with their grade.

除了观看视频外，对正式课程感兴趣的学生可以支付25美元的费用报名参加ASU在线课程，其中包括与其他学生，与教师互动。在完成七周课程后，学生会得到一个分数。在这一点上，学生可以决定他们是否愿意支付400美元记录成绩和获得亚利桑那州立大学学分。大学不限制学生选修一门课程的次数，学生只有在对成绩满意的情况下才支付400美元的费用。

High school graduates who did not attend or who left college before degree completion cited high cost, stress associated with college and uncertainty about future careers as reasons for opting out, according to a recent survey for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. YouTube was cited in the study as one of many alternate avenues to which high school graduates turn for learning outside college. ASU appears to have taken that observation as a motivating factor in creating its new on-ramp to college.

比尔和梅林达·盖茨基金会（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）最近的一项调查显示，那些未上过大学或在完成学位之前就离开了大学的高中毕业生，将高昂的学费、与大学相关的压力以及对未来职业的不确定性列为选择退出的原因。YouTube在这项研究中被认为是高中毕业生选择校外学习的众多途径之一。亚利桑那州立大学似乎已经把这一观察作为一个激励因素，在创造其新的坡道大学。

Historically, online higher education has largely succeeded in adding convenience for those with little time, but it has been less successful in creating enjoyable student experiences, according to Garrett.

加勒特说，从历史上看，在线高等教育已经在很大程度上成功地为那些时间不多的人提供了便利，但在创造愉快的学生体验方面却不太成功。

“The initial videos look really engaging, with the right tone and nice multimedia. You get drawn in,” Garrett said of ASU’s current initiative. “But how much of that is just that veneer?” When a student transitions from watching free, engaging videos to a conventional college course, they may experience a disconnect.

“最初的视频看起来确实很吸引人，有正确的基调和良好的多媒体。你被吸引了，”加勒特说亚利桑那州立大学目前的倡议。“但有多少只是表面现象呢？”当一个学生从观看免费的、引人入胜的视频过渡到传统的大学课程时，他们可能会面临一种脱节。

“Students can feel [online college] isn’t the super-fun experience that they started with,” Garrett said. “It can feel much more like dull, hard work.”

加勒特说：“学生们可以感觉到（网上大学）并不像他们开始时那样超级有趣。”“这感觉更像是枯燥艰苦的工作。”

The world turns to YouTube to learn, according to Katie Kurtz, managing director and global head of learning at YouTube. “Of our over two billion monthly logged-in users, nearly all of them report using the platform for knowledge and information.”

YouTube董事总经理兼全球学习负责人凯蒂·库尔茨（Katie Kurtz）表示，全世界都在向YouTube学习。“在我们每月超过20亿的登录用户中，几乎所有人都会使用该平台获取知识和信息。”

But a YouTuber’s conception of “knowledge and learning” on the platform may differ from a college student’s conception of “knowledge and learning” in the presence of online college assessment and learning verification. Students on the margins who aspire to earn degrees sometimes find that general education, major and elective requirements can be a “slog,” which contributes to high dropout rates, according to Garrett.

但是，在线大学测评和学习验证存在的情况下，一个YouTuber在平台上对“知与学”的概念可能与一个大学生对“知与学”的概念不同。加勒特说，那些渴望获得学位的边缘学生有时会发现，普通教育、专业和选修要求可能是一项“艰巨的任务”，这导致了高辍学率。

Arizona State knows this from experience. Its partnership with edX that launched in 2015, known as Global Freshman Academy, offered for-credit massive open online courses. That experiment, which enrolled hundreds of thousands of students in free online courses and a minuscule number who paid to receive college credit, never lived up to the hype.

亚利桑那州立大学从经验中知道这一点。它与edX于2015年建立了合作伙伴关系，名为全球新生学院（Global Freshman Academy），提供大量学分开放式在线课程。那次实验招收了数十万学生参加免费的在线课程，但只有极少数人付费获得大学学分，所以从未达到宣传的效果。

But the pandemic has changed student perceptions of online education. National online universities have experienced a surge in young undergraduates attending college fully online, which correlates with a recent national survey indicating that the number of high school juniors and seniors planning to attend fully online colleges has more than doubled since before the pandemic.

但疫情改变了学生对在线教育的看法。国立在线大学的年轻本科生完全在线上大学的数量激增，这与最近的一项全国调查相关，该调查显示，计划进入完全在线大学的高中三年级和四年级学生人数比疫情之前增加了一倍多。

“Maybe that’s a reason to monitor [ASU’s new partnership] carefully,” said Sean Gallagher, executive professor of educational policy at Northeastern University. “Some of these video courses for younger college students haven’t succeeded in the past. But are there new, emerging learning preferences that may have a better market now? The history of these types of initiatives seems to show that it can be difficult to get students coming right out of high school to be interested in online [college] and to succeed in online learning.”

东北大学教育政策执行教授肖恩·加拉格尔说：“也许这就是仔细监测（亚利桑那州立大学新伙伴关系）的原因。”“一些针对年轻大学生的视频课程在过去并不成功。但是，现在是否有新的、新兴的学习偏好可能有更好的市场呢？这类举措的历史似乎表明，让高中刚毕业的学生对在线（大学）感兴趣并在在线学习中取得成功是很困难的。”

Institutions like Arizona State that offer enhanced opportunities for students to earn low-cost, transferable credit are often following through on important institutional missions that also serve the public good. But colleges that find themselves on the receiving end of transfer credit requests sometimes have reservations when for-profit companies are involved. ASU has addressed that perennial concern in its current initiative by including its faculty in course development. That way, credit is awarded on an Arizona State transcript and is expected to transfer to any college that accepts its credit.

像亚利桑那州立大学这样为学生提供更多机会获得低成本、可转让学分的机构，往往在履行同样为公共利益服务的重要机构所使命。但是，当营利性公司参与进来时，那些发现自己是学分转让申请接收方的大学有时会有所保留。亚利桑那州立大学通过将其教师纳入课程开发，在其目前的倡议中解决了这一长期存在的问题。这样，学分是授予亚利桑那州的成绩单，并预计将转移到任何大学接受其学分。

Besides, low-bar, easy-entry college programs sometimes serve students in ways beyond college credit. When Western Governors University sought to improve its graduation rates, it grew more selective by turning away students who appeared less likely to complete a degree. So as not to close the door on such students completely, it referred them to StraighterLine, an unaccredited online course provider that does not offer degrees. When the university later reviewed its approach, it had admitted 94 percent of students who completed at least two StraighterLine courses, and year-to-year retention rates for StraighterLine course completers at Western Governors topped 90 percent.

此外，低门槛、易入学的大学项目有时会在大学学分之外为学生提供服务。当西部州长大学试图提高毕业率时，它变得更加挑剔，会拒绝那些看起来有可能完不成学位的学生。为了不对这些学生完全关闭大门，它将他们推荐给直线，一家未经认证的在线课程提供商，不提供学位。当该大学后来审查其方法时，它已经录取了94%的学生谁完成了至少两个直线课程，和直线课程完成者在西部州长每年的保留率超过90%。

This kind of on-ramp to college, which is at the heart of the ASU–YouTube–Crash Course partnership, may appease other colleges that only want to accept transfer credit from accredited universities. Also, the new pathway may bolster tentative learners’ perceptions of their academic potential. That is, regardless of past academic experiences, students can bypass the college application hurdle and have an online learning experience that presents an opportunity to build confidence and earn college credit.

这种进入大学的方式，是ASU YouTube速成班合作伙伴关系的核心，可能会安抚其他只想接受认证大学学分转让的大学。此外，新的途径可能会加强探索性学习者对其学术潜力的看法。也就是说，不管其过去的学术经验如何，学生都可以绕过大学申请障碍，获得在线学习体验，从而有机会建立信心，并获得大学学分。

None of the student fees go to YouTube, according to Kurtz. The Crash Course channel, where some of the videos live, has advertising, but students may navigate the program via ASU’s Study Hall channel on YouTube, which is ad-free. A YouTube spokesperson did not answer a question about its business model in the arrangement.

据库尔茨说，学生的学费没有一笔会流入YouTube。速成班频道，其中一些视频直播，有广告，但学生可以浏览该计划通过亚利桑那州立大学的学习大厅频道在YouTube上，这里没有广告。YouTube发言人没有回答有关其商业模式的问题。

“We’re still in the early days of the growth of these types of models, even though it has been about 20 years of online course experimentation,” Gallagher said. Two decades, after all, is only a fraction of the centuries of growth higher education has already logged.

加拉格尔说：“尽管在线课程实验已经进行了大约20年，但我们仍处于这类模式发展的早期阶段。”毕竟，20年只是高等教育已经历的几个世纪的成长期的一小部分。

In the United States, higher education has developed as a fragmented industry, unlike the landscape of online video-sharing platforms.

在美国，高等教育已经发展成为一个分散的行业，与在线视频分享平台的模式不同。

“No one in higher ed has even 1 percent market share,” Garrett said. “You don’t have a big, dominant provider like a YouTube. If you want to look up a how-to video, where do you go? You go to YouTube. You don’t typically think about any alternatives.”

加勒特说：“高等教育领域没有人拥有1%的市场份额。”“你没有像YouTube这样的大的、占主导地位的提供商。如果你想查找一个操作视频，你会去哪里？你上YouTube，通常不会考虑任何替代方案。”

Without sizable market share, colleges have had difficulty justifying exorbitant up-front costs of producing and updating highly engaging multimedia content across multiple courses and programs. By broadcasting highly engaging content, YouTube may help ASU attract students to the free component of its new initiative or to the $25 component through which they can participate in an ASU online course. The trajectory beyond that is undetermined.

没有相当大的市场份额，大学很难证明，制作和更新多个课程和项目中高度吸引人的多媒体内容的高昂前期成本是合理的。通过播放高度吸引人的内容，YouTube可能会帮助亚利桑那州立大学吸引学生参加其新举措的免费部分，或25美元的部分，通过这些部分，他们可以参加亚利桑那州立大学的在线课程。在此之后的发展尚未确定。

“If ASU can avoid the tension between that initial great experience and then a more ordinary online course experience, then that would be a breakthrough,” Garrett said.

加勒特说：“如果亚利桑那州立大学能够避免最初的伟大体验和更普通的在线课程体验之间的紧张关系，那么这将是一个突破。”

Breakthroughs are rarely simple. Costs associated with meaningful faculty-student interactions can be high. The same is true about retention efforts. Some of those efforts may be automated, but even automation has cost implications. Institutions may save money when delivering education at scale, but enrollment numbers in new programs can be challenging to predict. Nonetheless, Crash Course, with its accessible, engaging educational videos that incorporate storytelling, is a promising partner.

突破很少是简单的。与有意义的师生互动相关的成本可能很高。留住员工的努力也是如此。其中一些工作可能是自动化的，但即使是自动化，也会带来成本问题。教育机构在大规模提供教育时可能会节省资金，但新项目的入学人数可能很难预测。尽管如此，速成班十分方便，从事教育视频，结合讲故事，是一个有希望的合作项目。

“Online college has been convenient but not super engaging. Or we’ve had massive interest in free online, but then once you make people pay or do any work, the interest drops off massively,” Garrett said. “That’s the square we’re trying to circle here. How do you avoid these disappointments? Can we have it all? Can we have convenience and low price but also super engaging, great retention and great learning?”

“网上大学很方便，但并不是很吸引人。或者我们对免费在线有着巨大的兴趣，但一旦你让人们付费或做任何工作，兴趣就会大幅度下降，”加勒特说。“这就是我们要绕的那个区域。你如何避免这些失望？我们能全要了吗？我们能不能既方便又便宜，而且超级吸引人，记忆力强，学习能力强？”